Briefing Note - Ghana-Final

7/29/2019 Briefing Note - Ghana-Final

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Human resource capacity assessment

2

BaCkGroundThis Brieng Note summarises the

ndings of an IWA-led study in Ghana,made possible through the support

of the United States Agency for

International Development (USAID)

under the auspices of their West Africa

WASH (WA-WASH) program and co-

funded by Department for International

Development (DFID UK). The study

in Ghana was executed by staff of

the Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science and Technology (KNUST) and

supported by Cap-Net who facilitated the

connections with the country study team.

Ghana is located on the West AfricasGulf of Guinea, only a few degrees north

of the Equator. The country is plagued

by recurrent drought in the north which

severely affects agricultural activities.

Deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion,

poaching and habitat destruction

threatens wildlife population and causes

water pollution and inadequate supplies

of potable water.

Ghana is one of the most thriving

democracies on the continent and has

often been referred to as an island of

peace in one of the most chaotic regions

on earth. As of 2009, life expectancy at

birth was about 63 years for malesand females with infant mortality at 51

per 1,000 live births. The adult literacy

rate in Ghana was 65% in 2007, with

males at 71.7% and females at 58.3%.

Annually, 12.2% of all deaths recorded in

Ghana was directly related to the water

and sanitation insufciencies.

assessMent approaCh

The main objective of this study was to

assess human resource requirements

in the water supply and sanitation

Brieng Note Ghana

hm ccc m

w Ghana has met the 2015 target for drinking water. To

avoid regressing, however, attention needs to be paid to

cities that will experience a high urbanisation rate.

w The sanitation coverage is 14% and Ghana has not

made much progress in reducing the proportion of the

population with no access to improved sanitation. The

number of people in Ghana not using improved sanitation

facilities in 2015 will be approximately 24.5 million.

w Of the total deaths in Ghana, 12.2% are WASH-related

with the overwhelming proportion of these deaths being

young children1.

w The sanitation sector is still institutionally fragmented and

despite recent efforts there is still a lack of investment.

Whilst the sanitation function was transferred to

local government, the Ministry of Health still trains

staff for sanitation-related jobs and continues to

receive funds for that.

The transfer of nancial resources to the local

government for capacity building is limited.

w Whilst its importance is recognised and efforts are made

in sanitation, this report concludes that compared with

water supply, professional capacity is still less for the

sanitation sector.

There are more engineers and degree holders in

water supply than sanitation.

There is institutionalised training for technical

artisans and operators for urban water supply, but

no such arrangement for sanitation.

In the sanitation sector, the key challenge relates

to inadequate professional personnel, especially

sanitation engineers and technical staff.

w There is a shortage of mechanical, electrical and civil

engineers in the urban water sub-sector, due to failure of

replacing aging engineers and key technical staff in the

WATSAN sector.

w Public sector faces highest shortages:

Public agencies are limited by the government in

terms of the number of personnel they employ.

The service conditions in the public sector are not

attractive enough to draw the right calibre of certain

categories of personnel (civil, mechanical, electrical,

computer engineers) into the WASH sector.

International NGOs and some private sector

organisations attract more qualied people than the

public sector because they pay higher salaries.

key points

1 Safer Water, Better Health WHO 2008


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Fg 1: Mgc fm m c g g

Estimate population

Calculate WATSAN coverage

HR Demand

Existing HRcapacity

Supply HRCalculate HR shortages

and gaps

Recommendations to ll theshortages and gaps

Current

Current

Current

Current

Future

Future

Future

Future

sectors to facilitate achieving MDG

target 7c and, for comparison, universal

coverage of water supply and sanitation

for the predicted population in 2015 for

comparison.

The study focused on the human

resource requirements from the public

sector and parastatal institutions, and

the private sector (private consultancy

companies, individual contractors, etc.),

as well as NGOs and CBOs active in the

WASH sector.

MethodoloGiCal FraMework

To assess the human resources

requirements in WATSAN sector,

in terms of numbers (shortages),

skills and competencies (gaps), the

methodological framework, has set the

following steps, to:

1 Estimate the 2015 population to

incorporate growth.

2 Determine the current water supply

and sanitation coverage and

calculate the increases needed

to achieve a) the MDGs and b)

universal coverage.

3 Estimate a proxy of human resources

demand per type of service delivery

per 10,000 people.

4 Determine the existing human

resources capacity in the country in

terms of numbers and skill sets.

5 Assess the human resources supply

in the years up to 2015 in terms

of graduates as well as vocationaltraining.

6 Calculate the human resources

shortages and assess the human

resources gaps.

7 Provide recommendations for the

way in which training institutions can

address the shortages and gaps, as

well as provides recommendations

for alternative ways to meet the said

shortages and gaps.

disCiplines to Map huMan

resourCes CapaCity

The study used the following disciplines

to map human resources capacity in the

water supply and sanitation sectors:

tcc c cc

c

(WATSAN technical personnel):

a person who is professionally

engaged in a technical eld

specically related to the provision

of water and sanitation facilities

or infrastructure (for instance civil/environmental engineers).

tcc c,

cc f

c (other

technical personnel): a person who

is professionally engaged in another

technical eld that is required in

the planning, design or operation

of water and sanitation facilities

or infrastructure (such as hydro-

geologists, mechanical/electrical

engineers), but is not water and

sanitation sector specic.

Mgm c: a person

who is professionally engaged in

management (for instance nance,

human resources (HR) or strategic

managers and ofce managers

fullling administrative functions) as

well as persons who procure goods

and services or cost planners.

sc m: a person who

is professionally engaged in hygiene

promotion or other relevant water,

sanitation and health professions

in the social sciences (for instance

health promotion specialist,sociologist, community development

worker).

CoMponents oF the wash

serviCe delivery pathway

This study investigated the capacity of

these four disciplines noted above, and

the methodology directs to distinguish

between the human resources

requirements for three different types of

work noted below.

1 Design and construction of new

infrastructure


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2 Operation and maintenance

3 Community mobilisation and hygiene

promotion.

While this study reects data from the

water supply and sanitation sectors, theresearch considered hygiene practices

as dened by the WASH sector.

data ColleCtion

Data collection was done through desk

reviews, key informant interviews,

baseline surveys, organisational capacity

surveys and a gap analysis. The study

results were validated during a workshop

in which the results were presented.

loCation / saMple oF study

The data came from public sector

organisations, namely ten regional

ofces of Ghana Urban Water Limited,

ten regional ofces of the Community

Water and Sanitation Agency, six

Metropolitan Assemblies, 55 Municipal

Assemblies and 155 District Assemblies

cover all regions as per gure 2. Most

private organisations and NGOs are

headquartered in the Northern, Ashanti

and Greater Accra regions, but operate

beyond their boundaries. Six NGOs

and ve private consulting rms were

sampled from within these regions.

Additionally, two contractors, and seven

private operators (ve water and two

sanitation) were sampled.On the supply

side of HR, ve out of eight public

universities and four polytechnics were

sampled.

assuMptions and liMitations

The methodological framework hinges

on a number of assumptions:

1 Existing coverage data (JMP) is

sufciently accurate;

2 The methodology uses Joint

Monitoring Programme (JMP)2

coverage denition, which is

improved levels of water and

sanitation;

3 Different settlement sizes are

2 http://www.wssinfo.org/

typically served in each country

by the same water and sanitation

service delivery mechanism;

a To t the country context the size

of dispersed rural communities

as set out by the methodology

was lowered to 5,000 rather than

10,000.

b Urban communities in Ghana are

all settlement sizes from 5,000

upwards. This comprises the rural

village, small towns, large towns

and city in the methodology.

4 The methodology assesses

professionals, hence does not

include unskilled labour, household

and community involvement.

liMitation

As the construction of sanitation facilities

in both rural and urban areas is not

formalised, it is difcult to determine the

HR capacity for construction. The results

of this research could underestimate the

capacity for sanitation construction.

seCtor Context

The Government of Ghana (GoG)

has committed itself over the years

to developing systems and structures

that would improve access to WASH

nationwide. Although Ghana has a

Strategic Investment Plan for water and

sanitation, the nancial requirements

exceed the existing commitments of bothgovernment and donors to the sector.

According to WaterAid estimates, a total

of GH2.4 billion (US$1.6 billion)3 is

required to meet the sanitation and water

MDG targets. Together, the government

and donors need to close the water and

sanitation nance gap. To achieve this,

a Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS)

system is being established where

donors pool all of their funds and enable

the government to allocate the funds in

line with its own development and sector

priorities.

institutional FraMework For

serviCe delivery

In terms of institutional arrangements

and policy formulation, Ghanas WASH

sector has undergone substantial

transformation over the years since the

early 1990s. The sector currently has

various institutions responsible for policy

formulation and planning, facilitation and

regulation, and service delivery.

The WASH sector is organised into

three service categories: urban water,

urban sanitation, and rural water and

sanitation.

t b m are operated

by the public utility company, GhanaUrban Water Company Limited (GUWL)

and the water asset holder, also a public

company, Ghana Water Company

Limited (GWCL). The GUWL and GWCL

have the legal mandate to provide,

distribute and conserve water for

domestic, public and industrial purposes

in urban centres with more than 50,000

people. GUWL operates a total of 86

systems in ten regions. The urban

sanitation oversight role falls under

3 WaterAid (2010) Country Strategy 2010 2015:

Sanitation and Water for All by 2015 and Beyond.

Fg 2: G


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the responsibility of the Environmental

Health and Sanitation Directorate of

Ministry of Local Government but the

training of the Environmental Health

Ofcers is still under the Ministry of

Health. The Metropolitan, Municipal

and District Assemblies (MMDAs)

have the legal mandate to provide

urban sanitation services to urban

communities, mostly through communityor privately-managed sanitation facilities.

However, in reality households assume

responsibilities.

For

(watsan), the Community Water

and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and

Metropolitan, Municipal and District

Assemblies (MMDAs) are the key

institutions legally mandated to facilitate

the provision of safe drinking water

and related sanitation services to

rural communities and small towns.

Rural communities and small towns

own and manage their water supply

systems. For effective management of

the systems, these communities form

WATSAN committees that are mandated

by the local governments to manage

their facilities. A few private companies

operate in some small towns.

Whilst Ghana has no clear indicators tomeasure progress in hygiene provision,

some efforts are being made. The

Ministry of Education in collaboration

with the Ministry of Health introduced

a School Health and Education

Programme (SHEP) in various schools

nationwide to provide comprehensive

health education and services, as well

as ensure availability and use of water

and sanitation facilities in schools to

encourage hand washing practices.

population, existinG CoveraGe,

MdGs and CoveraGe deFiCits

The Population and Housing Census

in 2000 indicate that there were 339

urban localities, making up 44% of the

total population, and many dispersed

rural communities, constituting 56% of

Ghanas population. In 2010, the rural-

urban split is estimated as 49% to 51%

indicating a rapid urbanisation trend inthe country.

Compared with a national MDG target

of 80% for water supply and current

coverage of 86% (2010), Ghana has met

the 2015 target for drinking water. To

avoid regression, attention needs to be

paid to cities that, in light of urbanisation,

will require expansion of the piped water

system and/or point sources such as

boreholes and hand dug wells with or

without hand pumps. In addition, rural

villages and dispersed rural areas will

tb 1: p g, cg MdG/ c ( mb)

sc sm eg cg 2015

dc

cg

(2015

m 2010

)

MdG c

(MdG cc

m

g

cg

)

2010

2010

(%)

Water Dispersed Ruralcommunities

12,644,381 10,115,505 80 13,621,590 3,506,085 236,903

Rural villages, 5,449,351 4,958,909 91 6,472,119 1,513,210 542,392

Small towns 790,137 719,025 91 938,435 219,410 78,645

Large towns 1,666,869 1,516,851 91 1,979,717 462,867 165,909

Cities 4,108,074 3,738,347 91 4,879,103 1,140,756 408,890

National (total) 24,658,812 21,206,578 86 27,890,964 6,684,386 1,274,798

Sanitation Dispersed ruralcommunities

12,644,381 1,011,550 8 13,621,590 12,610,039 5,867,352

Rural villages, 5,449,351 1,035,377 19 6,472,119 5,436,742 2,524,289

Small towns 790,137 150,126 19 938,435 788,309 366,013

Large towns 1,666,869 316,705 19 1,979,717 1,663,012 772,139

Cities 4,108,074 780,534 19 4,879,103 4,098,569 1,902,973

National (total) 24,658,812 3,452,234 14 27,890,964 24,438,731 11,432,767

Hygiene Rural 12,644,381 1,011,550 8 13,621,590 12,610,039

Urban 12,014,431 2,282,742 19 14,269,375 11,986,633

National (total) 24,658,812 3,452,234 14 27,890,964 24,438,731

MDG access: Sanitation MDG target by 2015 is 52%, rural = 50.5%, urban 55%

MDG access: water target by 2015 is 80%, rural = 76% , urban 85%


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require boreholes, hand dug wells tted

with hand pumps, as well as small piped

systems.

Conversely, the sanitation coverage of

14% nationwide compared to a national

MDG target of 52% shows that the

country is off track and at this pace

WaterAid (2010) asserts that Ghana will

not achieve the sanitation target until

2130, over a century beyond the target

date. Inadequate investment and low

prioritisation of sanitation by government

are major causes of this situation4. The

decit is particularly big in settlements

of less than 5,000 people, where on-site

4 WaterAid (2010) Country Strategy 2010 2015:

Sanitation and Water for All by 2015 and Beyond.

dry sanitation (pit toilet, VIP, WC) is

used. Rural villages use on-site wet/dry

sanitation (VIP, WC/septic tank, pour

ush) systems.

According to the 2010 survey, more than

24,5 million people, representing about

86% of Ghanaians, did not have access

to improved sanitation. The gures also

indicate that 51%, representing over 12

million of the Ghanas population, share

toilet facilities with their neighbours,15%

use other forms of unimproved toilet

facilities while 20%, representing about

ve million people, do not have any

form of toilet facility in their homes and

therefore practice open defecation. To

address this problem, the EHSD of the

MLGRD reviewed its environmental

sanitation policy and recommended the

adoption of the community-led, totalsanitation/school-led total sanitation

(CLTS/SLTS) concept aimed at

sensitising and creating a platform for

communities to assume responsibility to

construct their own toilets.

huMan resourCes inthe wash seCtor

Future hr deMand

In this instance demand refers to the

number of human resources that are

tb 2: F hr m f cg MdG g 7c cg (cg fm g)

hr deMand For water to aChieve MdG watsan

teChniCal

Field

other teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent &

FinanCe

soCial

developMent

Water delivery: dispersed rural communities 3,013 3,717 1,760 3,044

Water delivery: rural villages 1,601 1,975 935 1617

Water delivery: small towns 94 298 143 386

Water delivery: large towns 199 629 301 814

Water delivery: city 489 1,551 742 2,007

Future hr deMand For sanitation to

aChieve MdG

watsan

teChniCal

Field

other teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent &

FinanCe

soCial

developMent

Sanitation delivery: dispersed rural communities 7,567 28,761 30,467 1,190

Sanitation delivery: rural villages 3,916 14,883 15,766 616

Sanitation delivery: small towns 2,601 13,130 10,431 249

Sanitation delivery: large towns 5,488 27,698 22,004 525

Sanitation delivery: city 13,525 68,263 54,231 1,293

Future hr deMand For water to

aChieve universal CoveraGe

watsan

teChniCal

Field

other teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent &

FinanCe

soCial

developMent

Water delivery: dispersed rural community 3,634 4,890 2,098 4,005

Water delivery: rural village 1,728 2,323 997 1,903

Water delivery: small towns 111 351 168 454

Water delivery: large towns 234 740 354 958

Water delivery: city 576 1,825 873 2,361

Future hr deMand For sanitation to

aChieve universal CoveraGe

watsan

teChniCal

Field

other teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent &

FinanCe

soCial

developMent

Sanitation delivery: dispersed rural communities 14,984 56,952 60,330 2,357

Sanitation delivery rural villages 7119 27,060 28,665 1,120

Sanitation delivery: small towns 47,301 23,872 18,965 452

Sanitation delivery: large towns 9,978 50,360 40,008 954

Sanitation delivery: city 24,591 124,115 98,602 2,352


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considered ideal to serve the population

effectively, using future coverage gures

(to achieve MDG targets and universal

coverage). A proxy (HR per 10,000

population) was computed, accordingto IWA methodology, using various

case studies in both rural and urban

water supply and sanitation systems

(also varying the computations for

construction, O&M and Community

mobilisation). This was used with future

population gures to estimate the HR

demand as seen in table 2.

Table 2 illustrates, in line with the low

sanitation coverage, that sanitation

requires an enormous number of

professional capacity in order to reach

universal coverage. Both construction

and O&M of sanitation are dependent on

the other technical eld category jobs.

In rural areas, the construction of

household toilet facilities is carried out

by local artisans with informal training.

Construction is performed by a mason,

labourer or a carpenter, who comes from

communities and lacks formal education.

Public and institutional toilet facilities

are constructed by private consulting

contractors with the requisite formal

training and competence. Some MMDAs

operate wastewater treatment plants

for treating faecal sludge from septic

tanks and other public dry toilets.

Institutions tasked with improving accessto sanitation are also responsible for

hygiene education but little is done in

this regard.

In the urban areas, the HR demand was

estimated on construction and O&M

of water closets and septic tanks and

other sanitation facilities. This resulted

in less higher educated, WATSAN-

specic technical personnel, but rather

carpenters, labourers and plumbers. The

household toilet construction is privately

arranged by the households.

To achieve universal water coverage, a

great number of HR is required in other

technical elds and management and

nance areas. This is particularly the

case to operate and maintain, and whilstdemand is greater in rural dispersed

areas (geographic distances are great),

the level of qualication for urban areas

is higher, where more engineers are

needed versus artisans. The HR proxies

also indicated more productivity in urban

areas.

The social development categories

are particularly high for water supply

services which reect the need for

social scientists involved in mobilising

the communities and their involvement

in the construction phase as well as for

hygiene education. Particularly in more

rural areas, the projects are managed

by jobs within this category. The current

shortfall in sanitation coverage on top of

that requires a lot of HR for promotion

(such as CLTS promoters, and sanitation

marketing specialists). Again, hygiene

promoters, and community mobilisers fall

under this category.

existinG huMan resourCe

CapaCity

w

Ghana Urban Water Limited employs2,911 and 216 employees work at the

Community Water and Sanitation Agency

(CWSA). In the private sector, there are

approximately 2,300 employees involved

in water and sanitation. The estimated

HR strengths of the nine international

NGOs and the 51 Ghanaian NGOs in

the country are approximately 210 and

660 respectively. There are 397 small

towns water systems in the country out

of which 390 are community-managed

and seven are privately managed.

Privately-managed systems have a

total staff complement of 63 whilst the

community-managed systems have

been estimated to have approximately

2,000 professional employees.

s

In 2010 there were six metropolitan, 55

municipal and 155 district assemblies.

The metropolitan assemblies each

have a waste management department

w watsan

teChniCal

Field

other

teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent

& FinanCe

soCial

developMent

t

Total NGO 100 50 200 375 725

Total Privatesector

489 195 195 130 1,708

Total Publicsector

1,347 1,251 736 257 3,591

TOTALNUMBERWORKING INWATER

3,851 1,568 1,824 762 6,023

s watsan

teChniCal

Field

other

teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent

& FinanCe

soCial

developMent

t

Total NGO 20 10 40 75 145

Total privatesector

213 84 84 253 635

Total publicsector

6 53 432 3,063 3,554

TOTALNUMBERWORKING INSANITATION

243 147 556 3,391 4,334


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(WMD) and an environmental health

department (EHD), both headed by

ofcers with BSc degrees. The MMDAs

HR for sanitation and environmental

health is 3,122 excluding unskilledlabour. The MMDA staff deals with the

O&M of the urban sanitation. The staff

is required to have an environmental

health qualication to ll positions on

full time basis. Only Kumasi out of the

six metropolitan areas has engineers

working in sanitation, being one of the

factors contributing to the low sanitation

coverage. There are also 400 workers in

charge of sludge collection.

For household rural sanitation,

construction is carried out by artisans

who acquire their skills in the non-formal

way. These artisans provide a demand-

driven service, where householders

request their services as and when they

have the necessary resources.

hr cc ccg c

f g

Ghana Urban Water Limited has the

highest staff complement among the

public water sector organisations, due

to the scope of their operations and

the large number (11 million) of people

they serve nationally. Currently, the

company operates 86 urban water

systems, serving settlements with

more than 50,000 inhabitants. The

MMDAs has a total HR strength of

3,122 excluding unskilled labour. EachMMDA has a three-member Water

and Sanitation Team (WST) in charge

of water and sanitation services,

comprising representatives from the

works, community development and

environmental health (EH) departments.

Staff from the environmental health

departments deal with sanitation issues

as well, which is why a major proportion

of their personnel fall under the social

development category.

Their total HR capacity nationwide has

been computed by extrapolating from the

sample organisations selected as shown

in table 5.

The private sector employs

approximately 2,300 people and

the NGO sector approximately 870

nationwide. In most instances, NGO staff

is project dependent and thus relatively

uid. NGOs are involved in construction

of boreholes and hand-dug wells as

well as community mobilisation. The

involvement of private rms and NGOs

in sanitation was low since there were

more water projects than sanitation.

The NGOs employees qualications

range from certicate, diploma to

Masters degrees. The only positions

occupied by trained staff in some NGOs

are for health and hygiene promotion

and community mobilisation. SomeNGOs employ secondary or high school

graduates and train them to do the eld

work whereas other NGOs employ BA

social science and social work graduates

to do the eld work. There is no well-

dened career progression in the NGO

and private sector involved in WASH,

since people are employed for specic

positions.

rm

Although employees in the public sector

enjoy job security, the remuneration

tb 5: eg hr cc c nGo

p c & nGo t mb

(a)

ag hr

g (B)

t hr

(aB)

Consulting rms 13 12 156

Contractors 20 43 860

Area mechanics, rural water 840 1 840

Private sector operatorsinvolved in faecal sludgecollection

200 2 400

Private sector operators,treatment plant

4 6 24

Private sector operators,

water

7 9 63

Sub-total (C) 2,343

International NGOs 9 23 207

Ghanaian NGOs 51 13 663

Sub-total (D) 870

Total (C+D) 3,213

tb 4: eg hr bc c

og watsan

cc

o

cc

Mgm

Fc

sc

dm

t

Water

CWSA 19 11 164 22

GUWL (urban water) 1,304 1,022 566 19

WRC (water) 24 2 6

MMDAs (works) 216 216

Sub-total 1,347 1,251 730 257 3,591

Sanitation

MMDAs (sanitation) 6 53 432 3,063

Sub-total 6 53 432 3,063 3,554

7,139


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9

packages and other conditions of service

were not attractive to those seeking

higher pay, again particularly for the

sanitation sector. Some public sector

organisations offer added benets suchas transport and accommodation for

senior employees.

In general, salaries, benets (transport,

accommodation) and opportunities for

on-the-job training are the incentives for

staying in the sector. The salary scales

in the public sector are not different

from one public sector organisations to

another but some differences exist in

other benets such as allowances for

transport and accommodation.

In addition to job security the public

sector employees enjoy other benets,

such as study leave with pay for further

training even though this is difcult to

secure. The job security particularly

results in a lower staff turnover in the

public sector than the private sector.

The high turnover in the private sector

is due to poaching where workers leave

in search of higher pay and greener

pastures beyond the WASH sector. Due

to the low level of emoluments paid

in public sector and the competition

from other private sector industries, the

WASH sector will have to improve their

retention strategies and efforts to sustain

the development of the sector.

Besides low salaries (in the publicsector), the obvious disincentives are

the lack of career progression and the

lack of recognition of further education

where employees may not get promoted

after attaining higher degrees. This

exacerbates the movement of qualied

personnel to the private sector. When

it comes to eld work, other factors

include inadequate equipment and tools

to perform critical tasks, unfavourable

policies and implementation strategies,

political interference and inadequate

collaboration among stakeholders. In

the case of NGOs, attracting or retaining

personnel is difcult, since they offer

project-determined, temporary positions.

This leads to frequent staff turnover.

However,Tthe private sector and theinternational NGOs have attractive

salaries and so are able to attract

qualied personnel.

occ c fc

When investigating the proportion of HR

involved in various aspects of national

WASH service delivery a greater

proportion of the HR in the WASH sector

(about 54% of the total workforce)

focuses on O&M. In Ghana the move

from urban to rural O&M, shows a

downscaling in the level of qualications

required: in small towns, water operators

require diploma qualications, and

rural water points with hand pumps

are managed by WATSAN committees

that are supported by trained area

mechanics, who have basic education

and are WASH trained.

For water sector construction the size of

the project determines the employees

qualications, and can range from

certicate, diploma to rst degree. As

the construction of sanitation facilities

in both rural and urban areas is not

formalised, it is difcult to determine

the HR capacity. Most sanitation and

environmental health employees include

public health engineers, environmental

health technologists, environmentalhealth ofcers and environmental

health assistants. Environmental health

ofcers (EHO) and environmental health

assistant (EHA) are posted to MMDAs to

take up positions in the Environmental

Health Departments or the Waste

Management Departments.

G q

The female and male distribution shows

that there are more males than females

in water provision with percentage

of females out of the total HRs in the

organisations ranging from 11% to 45%.

The number of females in GUWL is 16%

of total skilled personnel. On average,

the proportion of females in the public

sector is somewhat higher than that ofthe private sector with averages of 20%

to 27%.

The proportion of female employees

under the management and nance as

well as social development categories

(female-dominated programmes in

training institutions) are comparatively

higher than WATSAN technical eld and

other technical eld (male-dominated

programmes in training institutions).

This is also seen in participation levels

in training where female participation in

technical training programmes in tertiary

institutions ranges between 0% and

20%, whilst up to 63% of participants in

management and social development

programmes.

supply oF huMan resourCes to

the wash seCtor

u cc i

A number of training institutions in the

country currently produce graduates

with the requisite qualications and

competencies for the WASH sector. The

table 6 shows the graduate turnout in the

different education categories qualifying

in water and sanitation technical eld

programmes.

Almost 90% of the gures shown

at the top of this table, represent

undergraduate levels, since graduate

level programmes in water and

sanitation are expensive compared

to undergraduate levels. A smaller

proportion of graduates from the

universities are absorbed into the WASH

sector after graduation. There can be

various reasons for this, such as the

government embargo on employment

that affects the attraction of qualied HR,

or with regards to sanitation, the stigma


10/12


10

that is attached to toilet management.

o l f ec

Informal training of personnel in the

sector is important as it provides the

needed HR capacity for construction

works as well as O&M of some water

and sanitation facilities in rural areas. In

Ghana, the majority of artisans (masons,

carpenters, plumbers, etc.) acquire their

skills through informal training and are

capable of constructing and maintaining

sanitation facilities in both urban and

rural centres. Therefore, they are a very

important human resource if the MDG

targets are to be reached.

Although the country has a number

of training institutions that formally

train artisans including the National

Vocational Training Institute (NVTI)- they have made little impact due to

lack of opportunities for further WASH

training and education for these types

of jobs in the country. These institutions,

apart from being sparse, often also lack

the necessary resources to train more

people.

Formal training and the on-the-job

training of employees in the sector

for NGOs, private and public sector

organisations is often an individual

choice. In most instances, rst degree

training is done in Ghana. Some

employees get the opportunity to do

their MSc degree outside the country,

especially staff from the public sector as

they have the opportunities to get study

leave on full pay.

In some organisations, on-the-job

training is offered to all new employees

in order to stay abreast of operations in

the organisation. The positions requiring

on-the-job training are newly-recruited

extension services specialists, district

and regional WATSAN teams. The

newly-employed extension services

specialists are trained in communication,

facilitation, research, report writing,

critical thinking, fast meaningful reading,

computer literacy, monitoring and

evaluation and advocacy.

For NGOs, eld staff who interact

with rural populations are trained

in orientation and short training in

community-led total sanitation (CLTS),

and project staff are trained in report

writing, monitoring and evaluation

methodology.

Graduates entering the sector often have

general knowledge but no specic job-

related knowledge and skills. On-the-job

training is often provided, conditional on

available funds. The training is provided

by teammates, through workshops,

conferences and short courses.

em

In the 1990s interested EHOs whowished to develop themselves applied

to do a second diploma course in

environmental health technology at the

KNUST. Most environmental health

technologists (EHTs) from the KNUST

are close to retirement. A few of them

continued to do graduate courses such

as civil or sanitary engineering, but

most of these graduates were lost to

the system, either because they did not

get absorbed or because of the poor

conditions of service.

Environmental Health Assistants

(EHAs) who desire to be promoted to

Environmental Health Ofcers (EHOs)

grade must rst undertake the three-

year EHO training or other diploma

programmes. After completion, none of

the previous years served is credited to

them, which signicantly impacts their

willingness to stay in the sector.

huMan resourCeshortaGes: CoMparinGhr deMand withexistinG CapaCity andsupplyThe analysis of the shortages was done

by comparing HR demand with existing

capacity and HR supply. There is noshortage for management and nance

in the water sector because there are

several institutions in the country turning

out a surplus of graduates. However,

the sanitation sector fails to attract

management and nance staff. There is

a shortage of social development staff

in the water sector but a surplus in the

sanitation sector.

Shortages exist in the engineering

elds, especially sanitation engineers,

since education institutions do not

tb 6: hr (g g) wash c

hr supply watsan

teChniCal

Field

other

teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent

& FinanCe

soCial

developMent

Total estimate of HR

supply to WATERsector per year

506 606 1,403 303

Total estimate of HRsupply in WATERsector to 2015

2,530 3,030 7,015 1,515

Trend up or down

Total estimate of HRsupply to SANITATIONsector per year

253 303 702 152

Total estimate of HRsupply in SANITATIONup to 2015

1,265 1,515 3,508 758


11/12


11

offer specic training in environmental

engineering. The civil engineers

that are trained to take up jobs as

sanitation engineers nd the MMDAs

unattractive. The MMDAs HRs involved

in environmental health perceived

their training as more of a nuisance

abatement and so the service delivery

and sanitation system designs are not

the focus of their training.

Improvement in sanitation can be

achieved and sustained if there is

intensive education of the public

to cause the needed behavioural

change. This will require more social

development experts who will carry

out community mobilisation. Triggering

the need to improve sanitation and

construction of sanitation facilities would

need trained artisans who will assist inthe construction and maintenance of

the facilities. Therefore, this will require

the formation of artisan (other technical

eld) groups to facilitate their training.

WATSAN technical eld personnel

would be needed to supervise the

construction of these facilities. These

personnel will mostly be needed in the

rural areas since it has lower sanitation

coverage. However, with the high rate

of urbanisation, long term HR planning

should consider this.

The current vacancies exist in the

different work areas (construction,

O&M and community mobilisation), but

assuming current distribution of workers

for the work types is 14%, 78% and

7% respectively, it will logically follow

that most HR shortages are in the area

of operation and maintenance of the

water and sanitation services. Despite

the fact that Ghana has achieved its

water MDGs, the results conrm that to

sustain the coverage gures, considering

preventing failures of systems and

urbanisation, urban areas require more

engineers planning, and O&M than are

currently existing, whilst in rural areas

more social development personnel will

be needed to ensure that communities

can operate and maintain their systems.

To deal with rural sanitation, there is

a high shortage in construction andsocial development (health and hygiene

promotion) personnel.

There is a general shortage of

mechanical and electrical engineers in

urban water supply and replacing them

seems difcult due to the unattractive

salary and conditions of service. The

shortage of distribution engineers (civil

engineers) is ascribed to the lack of

strategic planning and recruitment to

replace aging engineers. The analysis of

the skill set of the existing HR capacity

and jobs shows that there are knowledge

and skill gap for newly-employed staff for

design, operation and maintenance of

water supply systems.

reCoMMendationsFor MeetinG huManresourCe needsInadequate investment in the WASH

sector, particularly for sanitation,

negatively impacts on attracting

and retaining workers. In addition, a

government embargo on employment,

affects the attraction and retention

of qualied HR working in the public

sector. Investment in the WASH sector,

apart from its easily perceptible knock-

on effect of improved access to water

and sanitation, can also provide a

magnet to attract and retain high calibre

professionals in the sector. It can be

increased if the government commits

itself to increase budget allocations

for sanitation and water, and work with

development partners through the

Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS)

system, donors and the private sector to

ensure that their annual allocations are

increased not only to improve the current

conditions to achieve the MDG targets

but to sustain those improvements.

short-terM iMproveMent oF hr

nuMBers

The following recommendations for

improving the immediate output ofhuman resources are drawn from the

study:

Government should make it a priority

to invest in latrine artisans and water

operators training as it is a vital part

of the needed HR to achieve the

water and sanitation-related MDGs

Environmental sanitation and service

delivery short courses should be

organised for staff with environmental

health background and technical

courses (design, construction,

operation and maintenance) for staff

tb 7: hr g c MdG cg (g c

)

QuantiFyinG the

shortaGes

teChniCal

Field

other

teChniCal

Field

ManaGeMent

& FinanCe

soCial

developMent

WATER SECTOR

HR shortage forachieving MDG

930 3,644 - 4,265 4,893

HR shortage forachieving full servicecoverage

2,302 5,603 -3,335 6,706

SANITATION SECTOR

HR shortage forachieving MDGs

31,592 151,072 128,835 - 276

HR shortage forachieving full servicecoverage

59,897 280,696 242,506 3,086


12/12


involved in technical WASH service

delivery

Institutional capacity building

programmes will be required to

strengthen service delivery activities

and performance of the MMDAs.

Better remuneration and benets

packages for water and sanitation

staff to retain existing personnel and

attract new graduates to the sector.

lonG-terM iMproveMent oF hr

nuMBers

The following recommendations for

improving the quantitative output of

human resources over the longer term

are drawn from the study:

Sanitation implementation

is fragmented, with multiple

departments (the Ministry of

Health and the Ministry of Local

Government) involved which

concomitantly leads to the budget

allocations and transfers for training

and investment in the public sector

equally fragmented. This results in

the sector being unable to attractneeded qualied engineers and other

personnel. The Ministry of Local

Government and Rural Development

should be adequately resourced

to be in charge of sanitation

implementation regarding the training

of personnel and job placement.

Government should ensure proper

planning of human resources in

the water and sanitation sector,

considering dynamic changes of

the labour market, and contextualinuencing factors.

To develop and retain HR, there

is the need for formulation of HR

capacity building policy, training

policy, and career succession

planning in the WASH sector

organisations to replace aging the

professions.

There is the need for mainstreaming

the informal sector by forming

associations of WATSAN artisans

and technicians, and institutionalise

their recognition by the water and

sanitation sector.

Sanitation service delivery can

be improved if the sector is able

to attract and retain competent

professionals. This would require:

The Ministry of Local Government

and Rural Development should

be adequately resourced to

be in charge of sanitation

implementation, including the

training of personnel and job

placement.

In-service training of existing staff

in form of seminars, workshops,

or at universities (KNUST, UEW,

UCC, UDS);

Improvement in conditions of

service (remuneration) - budget

allocation for staff training andincentive schemes should be a

priority

To develop curriculum and run BSc

training in Environmental Sanitation

and BSc Sanitary Engineering

Existing undergraduate

programmes that seek to train

students for the sanitation sector

need to be streamlined to conform

to the requirements of the MMDAs

There is a need to re-structure

sanitation HR within the MMDAsto recognise degree holders.

This could be done be providing

career development plan with

well-dened degree programmes

to be pursued in order to progress

from non-degree level to degree

(professional) level.

iMproveMent oF Qualitative

output oF huMan resourCes

To ensure improving qualitative output

of the countrys human resource and

ensuring training institutions are more

responsive to the needs of the labour

market, the following recommendations

are made:

The training needs assessment

of sanitation HR will be needed to

identify the short course requirement

to upgrade their skills.

Training institutions need to

provide opportunities for career

development in WASH technical

courses to motivate young people

and engineers to acquire more

knowledge.

Sponsor employees to do short

courses and tailor made short

courses in WASH and should be a

requirement for promotion.

This document is an output from a project made possible by the generous support of the UnitedStates Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed are not necessarilythose of USAID, the United States Government or the International Water Association.Data collected 2011-2012, report published April 2013

Full references are noted in the full

country assessment reports available

at www.iwahq.org/hrcapacity

Documents

Briefing Note - Ghana-Final